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COLOMBIA. .
72mf Year No. 92 Tuesday, January I. 5 () 2 Sections 20 Pages 15 Cents
Fighting breaks out in Afghan capital
By William Borders
New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Fierce fighting reportedly
broke out early Monday in the center
of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, as Soviet
troops struggled to consolidate their control after
last week's coup d'etat.
According to an eyewitness, the battle in Kabul
began shortly after midnight and lasted
about two hours. It involved tanks, artillery and
machine guns, as Afghan troops apparently
fought some of the thousands of Soviet soldiers
who have entered the country in the past week.
" It was one hell of a firefight," said a Kabul
resident who bad sat up listening to the battle
as snow fell gently over the ancient capital high
in the mountains. The witness said the battle
took place near the radio station and the presi-dential
palace, an area of some of the heaviest
fighting last Thursday when Babrak Karmal,
the Soviet- backe- d former deputy premier,
seized power from President Hafizullah Amin.
Amin was condemned by a revolutionary court
and executed.
There was no suggestion Monday of anything
approaching a countercoup: the Soviet forces
are generally well in control, according to all
accounts, and by morning Kabul was uiet once
again. But the fighting was another indication
of continuing resistance by units of the Afghan
army as Russian troops replaced them in va-rious
parts of the country.
There were unconfirmed reports of resis-tance
from a few other Afghan units in the east
and north of the country. But travelers from Af--
ghanistan, and reports through diplomatic and
other channels, said that few Afghan troops
were to be seen anywhere, indicating that most
Soviets are seeking en end to the rebellion in
Afghanistan. Page 16.
of the army units had either been persuaded to
withdraw or had been subdued.'
In and around Kabul, the Soviet army has es-tablished
what one witness described as a de-fense
perimeter, with tanks srt up around key
installations such as the radio station.
Although Afghanistan has reopened its inter-national
airport, it has allowed in almost no for-eign
reporters. One group of journalists who ar
rived Sunday from New Delhi was sent back
after the government said it could not guar-antee
their safety. They reported seeing dozens
of Soviet airplanes on the ground, and more
transport flights arriving. Other sources re-ported
that MiG fighters, with Soviet air force
markings, had occasionally streaked through
the sky in recenj days, presumably in a show of
force.
Karmal, the new head of government, has not
been seen in public. But he was reliably reported
to have met in private with some of his gov-ernment
supporters and with at least one East
European ambassador in Kabul.
There were reports that Soviet troops had
been seen patrolling in several regional cen-ters,
including Mazari- Shar- if , in the north, and
Herat, in the west. Since these have been cen-ters
of the tribal rebellion by Moslem dissi-dents,
it was presumed that the troops may
have engaged in fighting along the way. But
there was no firm indication that the Soviet
forces had yet addressed themselves militarily
to the task of defeating the rebellion, if that is
their aim in Afghanistan.
It appears, for the moment at least, that the
Soviet troops are still preoccupied with resis-tance
by the Afghan army, or the threat of it.
In the opinion of Western diplomats in Mos--.
cow the Soviet Union does appear to have em-barked
en a long- ter- m military- politic- al opera-tion
in Afghanistan aimed at overcoming the
threat of the Moslem tribal rebellion against
the Marxist regime in Kabul.
Experiment
with trailers
is a failure
ByDougHewins
Missourian staff writer
Columbia's experiment mmobile
home low- incom- e housing came to an
end Monday after 10 years. Most
people agree the attempt was less than
successful.
The city's 10- ye- ar lease on
Crossroads Trailer Court, held by the
- & Golsmbia Housing Authority., expired
oh Dec. 31. What remains of the 150"
! trailers originally set on the 200- ac- re
( 30- hecta- re) site north of Interstate 70
Route PPhas beea returned to the" Ionowners of the project.
The site is now a proposed shopping
mall location, thus putting the land
back in the center of Columbia's
- attention.
"" TBut, 10 years ago, national attention
on the site focused on whether public
1 low- inco- me housing could be
1 established in trailer parks. If feasible,
I there would have been a chance to
I stretch the public housing dollar
I further because of the lower unit costs
I for trailers than conventional
I apartment or home units. I On its last day Monday, only
I caretakers Harrison and Anna Stone
I remained as residents. About 100 mail
g boxes remain at the entrance,
S precariously perched on wooden posts
1 or laying upside down on the ground.
g But, the people have gone.
g Crossroads Trailer Court started in
If 1969 when the Columbia Housing
g Authority, in an effort to provide
5 needed low- inco- me housing, signed an
j 10- ye- ar lease with co- own- ers Robert
S lull of Columbia and Perry Ewing of
H Fulton. The idea looked great on
RiORcd Mailboxes stand neglected at the nearly vacant Crossroads Trailer Park
paper, according to project manager
Mary Sktllings. Utilities were in, paved
streets wound their way through the
wooded area and trailers could be
readied quickly for occupancy.
During the first five years of the
project, the occupancy rate was 90 to
S5 percent, according to Bill McKee,
director of the housing authority, " Bat
about five years ago, vacancies
increased to Ihe- poi- nt where only one- thi- rd
of the homes were occupied,"
said McKee.
According to McKee, the housing
authority tried to break the leasesix
years ago, but was unsuccessful.- -
McKee said the major problem with
the development, from the start, was
the lack of a clearly defined
maintenance provision. " It was a very
gray area," he said. " There were
disputes between the authority, the
owners and the residents as to who was
responsible for maintaining the
project. We tried three different times
to agree on what was to be considered
normal wear and tear, which the
corners would pay for, and what we
were to maintain."
But, said McKee, no satisfactory
arrangement was made until ths
housing authority and the owners
submitted to arbitration about five
years ago. It was decided the authority
would take care of all maintenance and
pay for everything but normal wear
and tear. 4 Transportation also was a major
problem, said McKee. " Many of the
lower income residents didn't have
transportation and it was inconvenient
to be that far from downtown," he
said. Forpersonsgoingtoandfrom
work, there were no real problems
because city buses did provide
transportation. But, ifsomeone was --
downtown in the evenings when the
buses weren't running, they would
have to take a taxi nr find some other
way to get home. "
McKee said many of the residents
were transients and this contributed to
the project's eventual decline. He said
many people would slay in the project
only until they could find other
accommodations, thus taking little or
iio interest in maintaining the
property. " I can't verify this, but I
think many of the people there really
didn't like living in mobile homes, and
would much rather have lived in an
( SeeRENT, Pagel3)
UN gives Iran
week to comply
By Bernard D. Nossfter
New York Times
UNITED NATIONS The Security
Council Monday voted 11-- 0 to give Iran .
one week to release the American hos-tages.
If they are not freed by then, the
council agreed to meet on Jan. 7 to
vote on imposing economic sanctions
againsTehran. rfggr
However, the next gflgggjfi
council will have at iSpgfjS
least four new mem-- f5jt IM
. berscand it is con-- : . . . .
aiivable that what HpWr was done Monday " v. p
could be undone next -- wr
week. .,
Nevertheless, Monday's action was
considered major diplomatic triumph
for the United States.
The first stage of the U. N. plan has
already produced the mission that sent
Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to
Tehran Monday in an effort to nego-tiate
thehestages' release.
There is, however, widespread scep-ticism
among diplomats here over
whether the Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-meini
will be moved, either by Wald-heim
or by the threat to cut off Iran's
imports.
In Monday's action, four of the 15
council members abstained. They
were the Soviet Union and its ally,
Czechoslovakia; and two predominant-ly
Moslem states, Kuwait and Bangla-desh.
Two nations who voted with the
majority, China and Zambia, indicated
they did not regard themselves bound
by the resolution's demand for sanc-tions
on Jan. 7 if Waldheim is unsuc-cessful.
After the council meeting, Secretary
of State Cyrus R. Vance told reporters,
" I'm very pleased at the vote. I join
everybody else in wishing the secre-tary
general good fortune and I hope
and pray he will have a fruitful trip."
Waldheim left from New York with
two aides on the first leg of a journey
that will take him to Tehran on today.
He expects to have three days of talks
. with Iranian officials. But he left here
without any guarantee that he would
see Khomeini.
Waldheim, an aide said, will point
out that some day Iran will want to re-join
the world community and now it is
totally isolated. Even the four nati- R3-- - --
that abstained in the council vote have
urged the immediate release of the
hostages. Waldheim is said to believe
that it will' be unnecessary to point out
that Iran has much more to fear from
the Soviet Union than the United
States, that the Soviet move into Af-ghanistan
makes this point clear.
The Security Council resolution
adopted Monday notes Waldheim's
readiness to go to Iran and asks him to
report back to the next council meet-ing,
which is fixed for Jan. 7. If he has
failed to win the hostages freedom, the
resolution says, the council will " adopt
effective measures" under provisions
of the U. N. charter .
Two weeks ago, the United States
could count only on six votes for sanc-tions,
its own and those of Britain,
France, Norway, Portugal and Bolivia.
Nine are needed to adopt a resolution.
The acquisition of five more is re-garded
as a major coup for Donald F.
McHenry, the permamenent UJ5. rep-resentative
to the United Nations.
The key was yielding to the Third
World's plea to give Waldheim more
time to negotiate. McHenry did so, but
insisted on both a time limit and a
commitment to impose sanctions if
Waldheim failed.
I County residents pay taxes; one more files protest
11 By Terry Home
1 Missourian staff writer
g The deputy collectors and clerks tossed their
f yellow scratch pad notes on the floor as they
H rushed between the windows and the ledgers in
II their hurry Monday to collect the taxes of
H Boone Countians.
H The lines at times backed up to the doors of
SI the County- Cit- y Euilding. Some came because
m they did not know the deadline had been extend- -
H eduntilJanS.
H Others came on their last day off work before
g the deadline.
fa And one man came to file a letter protesting
his property taxes with his check for $ 962.36.
Steve Lamphear, 818 Rollins Road, said he
read an article in Saturday's Columbia Missou-rian
about a doctor who protested his taxes.
Lamphear decided it was a good idea.
" I wish I had done it last year," Lamphear
said.
Lamphear moved to Boone County from New
York in 1S78 to become an assistant professor of
natural resource management with the Univer-sity.
In his letter he protested the county's poli-cy
of only reassessing property when it is im-proved
or sold.
" I think die new people who come' into the
county are financing the county. I am very pro- -
paying taxes. I just want to pay my fair share,"
Lamphear said.
Although he must file suit within 90 days in
Circuit Court or his taxes will be taken out of
the county's escrow account and dispersed,
Lamphear said he wasn't sure what he would
do.
" I haven't completely thought out. all of the
future actions of this thing," he said.
In bis letter, Lamphear cited the Missouri
and U. S. constitutions. Missouri law, requires
all tsr. protests to cite statutory grounds.
For others at th County- Cit- y By. fld. tng, it was
just another day of standing in line to pay their
taxes. James Shaw, 3408 Madrid Lane, said he
knew about the deadline extension bat " since I
had the day off, I thought I better pay."
However, Brenda Dent, 2908 Leeway Drive,
thought she wasjust slipping under the wire.
Although she has lived in Boone County since
1977, her first taxable property was the car she
bought in March of 1978, The county only as-sesses
personal property that is owned as of --
Jan. 1 of each year, so this was the first time
she had to pay a tax.
After she stood two hours in line at the collec-tor's
office on the first floor, she was sent up-stairs"
to sec county assessor Don Fenton who
recorded her car and then informed her about
the extension.
" m Save to spend my two hours in the first
line and find cut what the tax is and then I'll
mail it in," she said.
For Liz Schmidt, co- chairwom- an of the Boone
County Home Rule Petition Committee, the
long lines were a bonanza. Mrs. Schimdt
roamed the lines passing out leaflets and gath-ering
signatures.
" Some people never sign anything, and we do
run into people who have already signed it,"
Mrs. Schmidt said.
Even so, the committee has gathered 200
more signatures at the collector's flffice since
Dec. 26. The committee has collected a total of
4,700 of the 7,040 signatures seeded before a
commission can write a home rule charter and
submit it to the voters.
i If you're racisig inflation . . .
I Cathy A- KB-psr
. , . Then you'll want to see Thursday's
Columbia Missourian for a 20- pa- ge tab-loid
on ways to beat inflation. As an ex-tra
bonus, you'll get the 1979 Mutual
and New York Stock Exchange com-posite
listings. Exclusively in the Co-lumbia
Missourian. '
No paper
So that Columbia Missourian em-ployees
can spend New Year's Day
with their families, the Missourian wilt
not be published Wednesday.
Normal publication and distribution
will resume Thursday.
Columbia shivered its way through 1970s
Decade was snowiest on record
By Eric Johnson
Missourian staff writer
Bid adieu to the Ice Decade.
The 1370s were the snowiest, and
among the coldest years, in Colum- isa-' s
history.
Cohtsabia was blanketed with more
snow about 263 inches ( 657 centime-ters
than in any ether decade on re-cord,
it exceeded, the previous IC- ye- ar
accumulation- recor- d of 2S2 inches ( 630
centimeters) setin this century's first
decade. Weather statistics for Colum--,
bsa were first gathered in 1889.
Heavy snowfall during the winter of
1977- 7- 8 was the major reason for Ihe
new decade record, when 54.9 inches
( 137.2 centimeters) fell, exceeding the
old 1911- 1- 2 record by 8.7 inches ( 21.7
centimeters).
Three of the five coldest tvintars
went on the books in the past 10 years,
and the average wintertime tesspera- tur- s
for a decade sank to a new low of
' 29.5 degrees Fahrenheit" ( roinus 18.3
degrees Celsius).
Monthly snow records were brpksn
three times during the 7Gs, first when
. O inches ( 20.79 centimeters) fell in '
November 1971, then in December 1973
when 17.8 inches ( 44.5 centimeters)
dropped and finally last January, when
23.5 inches ( 59.3 centimeters) fell.
Weathar records from the past de-cade
also included the coldest average
temperatures for three months. The
mercury plunged to new low3 for Sep-tember
a) ISJ4, Nevsaibsr in IS75 azrf"
January in 1977.
It appears & new ice age is dawning.
Or is it?
Russell Marshall, a weather special-ist
at Columbia Regional Airport,, said
ice age speculation is not within the
realm of National Weather Service
predictions. Forecasts are limited to
three- mont- h conjectures, he said.
" A decade is just a short span in the
history cf the earth. It's too short a pe-riod
for anything but speculation"
about an ice age, Marshall said.
One prediction Marshall could pro-vide
was a 60 percent cftaiics of below- nonn- sl
temperatures for this decade's
first two mouths.
Marshall said above- norm- al temper-atures
and precipitation readings will
prevail thoughcut most of the continen-tal
United States, including Missouri,
at least through mid- Januar- y.

COLOMBIA. .
72mf Year No. 92 Tuesday, January I. 5 () 2 Sections 20 Pages 15 Cents
Fighting breaks out in Afghan capital
By William Borders
New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Fierce fighting reportedly
broke out early Monday in the center
of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, as Soviet
troops struggled to consolidate their control after
last week's coup d'etat.
According to an eyewitness, the battle in Kabul
began shortly after midnight and lasted
about two hours. It involved tanks, artillery and
machine guns, as Afghan troops apparently
fought some of the thousands of Soviet soldiers
who have entered the country in the past week.
" It was one hell of a firefight," said a Kabul
resident who bad sat up listening to the battle
as snow fell gently over the ancient capital high
in the mountains. The witness said the battle
took place near the radio station and the presi-dential
palace, an area of some of the heaviest
fighting last Thursday when Babrak Karmal,
the Soviet- backe- d former deputy premier,
seized power from President Hafizullah Amin.
Amin was condemned by a revolutionary court
and executed.
There was no suggestion Monday of anything
approaching a countercoup: the Soviet forces
are generally well in control, according to all
accounts, and by morning Kabul was uiet once
again. But the fighting was another indication
of continuing resistance by units of the Afghan
army as Russian troops replaced them in va-rious
parts of the country.
There were unconfirmed reports of resis-tance
from a few other Afghan units in the east
and north of the country. But travelers from Af--
ghanistan, and reports through diplomatic and
other channels, said that few Afghan troops
were to be seen anywhere, indicating that most
Soviets are seeking en end to the rebellion in
Afghanistan. Page 16.
of the army units had either been persuaded to
withdraw or had been subdued.'
In and around Kabul, the Soviet army has es-tablished
what one witness described as a de-fense
perimeter, with tanks srt up around key
installations such as the radio station.
Although Afghanistan has reopened its inter-national
airport, it has allowed in almost no for-eign
reporters. One group of journalists who ar
rived Sunday from New Delhi was sent back
after the government said it could not guar-antee
their safety. They reported seeing dozens
of Soviet airplanes on the ground, and more
transport flights arriving. Other sources re-ported
that MiG fighters, with Soviet air force
markings, had occasionally streaked through
the sky in recenj days, presumably in a show of
force.
Karmal, the new head of government, has not
been seen in public. But he was reliably reported
to have met in private with some of his gov-ernment
supporters and with at least one East
European ambassador in Kabul.
There were reports that Soviet troops had
been seen patrolling in several regional cen-ters,
including Mazari- Shar- if , in the north, and
Herat, in the west. Since these have been cen-ters
of the tribal rebellion by Moslem dissi-dents,
it was presumed that the troops may
have engaged in fighting along the way. But
there was no firm indication that the Soviet
forces had yet addressed themselves militarily
to the task of defeating the rebellion, if that is
their aim in Afghanistan.
It appears, for the moment at least, that the
Soviet troops are still preoccupied with resis-tance
by the Afghan army, or the threat of it.
In the opinion of Western diplomats in Mos--.
cow the Soviet Union does appear to have em-barked
en a long- ter- m military- politic- al opera-tion
in Afghanistan aimed at overcoming the
threat of the Moslem tribal rebellion against
the Marxist regime in Kabul.
Experiment
with trailers
is a failure
ByDougHewins
Missourian staff writer
Columbia's experiment mmobile
home low- incom- e housing came to an
end Monday after 10 years. Most
people agree the attempt was less than
successful.
The city's 10- ye- ar lease on
Crossroads Trailer Court, held by the
- & Golsmbia Housing Authority., expired
oh Dec. 31. What remains of the 150"
! trailers originally set on the 200- ac- re
( 30- hecta- re) site north of Interstate 70
Route PPhas beea returned to the" Ionowners of the project.
The site is now a proposed shopping
mall location, thus putting the land
back in the center of Columbia's
- attention.
"" TBut, 10 years ago, national attention
on the site focused on whether public
1 low- inco- me housing could be
1 established in trailer parks. If feasible,
I there would have been a chance to
I stretch the public housing dollar
I further because of the lower unit costs
I for trailers than conventional
I apartment or home units. I On its last day Monday, only
I caretakers Harrison and Anna Stone
I remained as residents. About 100 mail
g boxes remain at the entrance,
S precariously perched on wooden posts
1 or laying upside down on the ground.
g But, the people have gone.
g Crossroads Trailer Court started in
If 1969 when the Columbia Housing
g Authority, in an effort to provide
5 needed low- inco- me housing, signed an
j 10- ye- ar lease with co- own- ers Robert
S lull of Columbia and Perry Ewing of
H Fulton. The idea looked great on
RiORcd Mailboxes stand neglected at the nearly vacant Crossroads Trailer Park
paper, according to project manager
Mary Sktllings. Utilities were in, paved
streets wound their way through the
wooded area and trailers could be
readied quickly for occupancy.
During the first five years of the
project, the occupancy rate was 90 to
S5 percent, according to Bill McKee,
director of the housing authority, " Bat
about five years ago, vacancies
increased to Ihe- poi- nt where only one- thi- rd
of the homes were occupied,"
said McKee.
According to McKee, the housing
authority tried to break the leasesix
years ago, but was unsuccessful.- -
McKee said the major problem with
the development, from the start, was
the lack of a clearly defined
maintenance provision. " It was a very
gray area," he said. " There were
disputes between the authority, the
owners and the residents as to who was
responsible for maintaining the
project. We tried three different times
to agree on what was to be considered
normal wear and tear, which the
corners would pay for, and what we
were to maintain."
But, said McKee, no satisfactory
arrangement was made until ths
housing authority and the owners
submitted to arbitration about five
years ago. It was decided the authority
would take care of all maintenance and
pay for everything but normal wear
and tear. 4 Transportation also was a major
problem, said McKee. " Many of the
lower income residents didn't have
transportation and it was inconvenient
to be that far from downtown," he
said. Forpersonsgoingtoandfrom
work, there were no real problems
because city buses did provide
transportation. But, ifsomeone was --
downtown in the evenings when the
buses weren't running, they would
have to take a taxi nr find some other
way to get home. "
McKee said many of the residents
were transients and this contributed to
the project's eventual decline. He said
many people would slay in the project
only until they could find other
accommodations, thus taking little or
iio interest in maintaining the
property. " I can't verify this, but I
think many of the people there really
didn't like living in mobile homes, and
would much rather have lived in an
( SeeRENT, Pagel3)
UN gives Iran
week to comply
By Bernard D. Nossfter
New York Times
UNITED NATIONS The Security
Council Monday voted 11-- 0 to give Iran .
one week to release the American hos-tages.
If they are not freed by then, the
council agreed to meet on Jan. 7 to
vote on imposing economic sanctions
againsTehran. rfggr
However, the next gflgggjfi
council will have at iSpgfjS
least four new mem-- f5jt IM
. berscand it is con-- : . . . .
aiivable that what HpWr was done Monday " v. p
could be undone next -- wr
week. .,
Nevertheless, Monday's action was
considered major diplomatic triumph
for the United States.
The first stage of the U. N. plan has
already produced the mission that sent
Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to
Tehran Monday in an effort to nego-tiate
thehestages' release.
There is, however, widespread scep-ticism
among diplomats here over
whether the Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-meini
will be moved, either by Wald-heim
or by the threat to cut off Iran's
imports.
In Monday's action, four of the 15
council members abstained. They
were the Soviet Union and its ally,
Czechoslovakia; and two predominant-ly
Moslem states, Kuwait and Bangla-desh.
Two nations who voted with the
majority, China and Zambia, indicated
they did not regard themselves bound
by the resolution's demand for sanc-tions
on Jan. 7 if Waldheim is unsuc-cessful.
After the council meeting, Secretary
of State Cyrus R. Vance told reporters,
" I'm very pleased at the vote. I join
everybody else in wishing the secre-tary
general good fortune and I hope
and pray he will have a fruitful trip."
Waldheim left from New York with
two aides on the first leg of a journey
that will take him to Tehran on today.
He expects to have three days of talks
. with Iranian officials. But he left here
without any guarantee that he would
see Khomeini.
Waldheim, an aide said, will point
out that some day Iran will want to re-join
the world community and now it is
totally isolated. Even the four nati- R3-- - --
that abstained in the council vote have
urged the immediate release of the
hostages. Waldheim is said to believe
that it will' be unnecessary to point out
that Iran has much more to fear from
the Soviet Union than the United
States, that the Soviet move into Af-ghanistan
makes this point clear.
The Security Council resolution
adopted Monday notes Waldheim's
readiness to go to Iran and asks him to
report back to the next council meet-ing,
which is fixed for Jan. 7. If he has
failed to win the hostages freedom, the
resolution says, the council will " adopt
effective measures" under provisions
of the U. N. charter .
Two weeks ago, the United States
could count only on six votes for sanc-tions,
its own and those of Britain,
France, Norway, Portugal and Bolivia.
Nine are needed to adopt a resolution.
The acquisition of five more is re-garded
as a major coup for Donald F.
McHenry, the permamenent UJ5. rep-resentative
to the United Nations.
The key was yielding to the Third
World's plea to give Waldheim more
time to negotiate. McHenry did so, but
insisted on both a time limit and a
commitment to impose sanctions if
Waldheim failed.
I County residents pay taxes; one more files protest
11 By Terry Home
1 Missourian staff writer
g The deputy collectors and clerks tossed their
f yellow scratch pad notes on the floor as they
H rushed between the windows and the ledgers in
II their hurry Monday to collect the taxes of
H Boone Countians.
H The lines at times backed up to the doors of
SI the County- Cit- y Euilding. Some came because
m they did not know the deadline had been extend- -
H eduntilJanS.
H Others came on their last day off work before
g the deadline.
fa And one man came to file a letter protesting
his property taxes with his check for $ 962.36.
Steve Lamphear, 818 Rollins Road, said he
read an article in Saturday's Columbia Missou-rian
about a doctor who protested his taxes.
Lamphear decided it was a good idea.
" I wish I had done it last year," Lamphear
said.
Lamphear moved to Boone County from New
York in 1S78 to become an assistant professor of
natural resource management with the Univer-sity.
In his letter he protested the county's poli-cy
of only reassessing property when it is im-proved
or sold.
" I think die new people who come' into the
county are financing the county. I am very pro- -
paying taxes. I just want to pay my fair share,"
Lamphear said.
Although he must file suit within 90 days in
Circuit Court or his taxes will be taken out of
the county's escrow account and dispersed,
Lamphear said he wasn't sure what he would
do.
" I haven't completely thought out. all of the
future actions of this thing," he said.
In bis letter, Lamphear cited the Missouri
and U. S. constitutions. Missouri law, requires
all tsr. protests to cite statutory grounds.
For others at th County- Cit- y By. fld. tng, it was
just another day of standing in line to pay their
taxes. James Shaw, 3408 Madrid Lane, said he
knew about the deadline extension bat " since I
had the day off, I thought I better pay."
However, Brenda Dent, 2908 Leeway Drive,
thought she wasjust slipping under the wire.
Although she has lived in Boone County since
1977, her first taxable property was the car she
bought in March of 1978, The county only as-sesses
personal property that is owned as of --
Jan. 1 of each year, so this was the first time
she had to pay a tax.
After she stood two hours in line at the collec-tor's
office on the first floor, she was sent up-stairs"
to sec county assessor Don Fenton who
recorded her car and then informed her about
the extension.
" m Save to spend my two hours in the first
line and find cut what the tax is and then I'll
mail it in," she said.
For Liz Schmidt, co- chairwom- an of the Boone
County Home Rule Petition Committee, the
long lines were a bonanza. Mrs. Schimdt
roamed the lines passing out leaflets and gath-ering
signatures.
" Some people never sign anything, and we do
run into people who have already signed it,"
Mrs. Schmidt said.
Even so, the committee has gathered 200
more signatures at the collector's flffice since
Dec. 26. The committee has collected a total of
4,700 of the 7,040 signatures seeded before a
commission can write a home rule charter and
submit it to the voters.
i If you're racisig inflation . . .
I Cathy A- KB-psr
. , . Then you'll want to see Thursday's
Columbia Missourian for a 20- pa- ge tab-loid
on ways to beat inflation. As an ex-tra
bonus, you'll get the 1979 Mutual
and New York Stock Exchange com-posite
listings. Exclusively in the Co-lumbia
Missourian. '
No paper
So that Columbia Missourian em-ployees
can spend New Year's Day
with their families, the Missourian wilt
not be published Wednesday.
Normal publication and distribution
will resume Thursday.
Columbia shivered its way through 1970s
Decade was snowiest on record
By Eric Johnson
Missourian staff writer
Bid adieu to the Ice Decade.
The 1370s were the snowiest, and
among the coldest years, in Colum- isa-' s
history.
Cohtsabia was blanketed with more
snow about 263 inches ( 657 centime-ters
than in any ether decade on re-cord,
it exceeded, the previous IC- ye- ar
accumulation- recor- d of 2S2 inches ( 630
centimeters) setin this century's first
decade. Weather statistics for Colum--,
bsa were first gathered in 1889.
Heavy snowfall during the winter of
1977- 7- 8 was the major reason for Ihe
new decade record, when 54.9 inches
( 137.2 centimeters) fell, exceeding the
old 1911- 1- 2 record by 8.7 inches ( 21.7
centimeters).
Three of the five coldest tvintars
went on the books in the past 10 years,
and the average wintertime tesspera- tur- s
for a decade sank to a new low of
' 29.5 degrees Fahrenheit" ( roinus 18.3
degrees Celsius).
Monthly snow records were brpksn
three times during the 7Gs, first when
. O inches ( 20.79 centimeters) fell in '
November 1971, then in December 1973
when 17.8 inches ( 44.5 centimeters)
dropped and finally last January, when
23.5 inches ( 59.3 centimeters) fell.
Weathar records from the past de-cade
also included the coldest average
temperatures for three months. The
mercury plunged to new low3 for Sep-tember
a) ISJ4, Nevsaibsr in IS75 azrf"
January in 1977.
It appears & new ice age is dawning.
Or is it?
Russell Marshall, a weather special-ist
at Columbia Regional Airport,, said
ice age speculation is not within the
realm of National Weather Service
predictions. Forecasts are limited to
three- mont- h conjectures, he said.
" A decade is just a short span in the
history cf the earth. It's too short a pe-riod
for anything but speculation"
about an ice age, Marshall said.
One prediction Marshall could pro-vide
was a 60 percent cftaiics of below- nonn- sl
temperatures for this decade's
first two mouths.
Marshall said above- norm- al temper-atures
and precipitation readings will
prevail thoughcut most of the continen-tal
United States, including Missouri,
at least through mid- Januar- y.